Gone but not forgotten
by Vampellzy
Summary: Lizzie finds a loophole, a way to see Fred. In her dreams. These lead here to question her purpose and mess with the rules. I do not own etc
1. Chapter 1

Though Lizzie had been without Fred for the space of twenty one years during his imprisonment in the Jack in a box, she had adjusted to his renewed presence in her life very quickly. Though his antics more often than not lead to things being worse for her, she also knew that they had worked in their intention to get her mind off her philandering husband and the rest of her life, as it was in such disarray. Well at least Janie hadn't lost everything.

Now, she felt the silence and loneliness pressing in on her in the small bedroom. She had thought she had cleared away all traces of the salad she had dumped upon Charles' creeping and despicable head. Yet there, a stray lettuce or rocket leaf lay conspicuously by the doorframe. She missed Fred's constant presence, irritated, happy, shocked, whatever she had been in his company, she had never been alone with him the way she had been with her husband. The euphoria that had overwhelmed her after her overcoming of all her long held fears had now melted away. Mickey had been lovely, but se was in no position to think about embarking on a new relationship right then.

She bit her lip and stood up, walking toward the kitchen, how had she been less than 48 hours ago, hard bent on removing him from her life. It had worked She turned and immediately saw the spot where she had last seen Fred in her world, lying worn out in the floor, determined to think only of her wellbeing as he lay dangerously close to oblivion. Feeling Tears well – up, she walked to the unmarked stretch of carpet and lay down silently comforting herself by curling up on the spot, drawing her knees up to her chest and under her chin. She closed her eyes and pulled her arms around to hug her legs and allowed herself to drift into a light and restless sleep.

She risked opening her eyes and found herself in an abstracted version of her mother's front room. At least it felt that way, except for the blue wooden park bench. It seemed strange and unfamiliar in this place. If you looked out into the window it made your eyes cross as if it didn't want you to see outside. In place of the bench, the seat from her mother's back garden suddenly melted into view. She approached it cautiously.

"I don't understand." She began.

"You don't have to. This place isn't to understand in, just for feelings. Unfinished business and all that, which you seem to have with me." She could hear the smile in hid voice. "I thought I'd got rid of you." She smiled too, but didn't turn around. Dreams had a way of dangling what you wanted just out of reach and snatching it away when you got too close.

"Fred?"

"Yes, stupid, who do you think it is? You can turn around you know, I'm not going to disappear or anything." She obeyed him, surprising the both of them. He was right.

"So are you a figment of my demented dream – addled state, then…?" Fred looked the same as ever if a little unsettled and nonplussed by his surroundings.

"Not exactly, I have no control over this, I just got sort if sucked in."

"You could just be saying that. Janie would say that my mind is only supplying a deficiency that can't be achieved in my waking state." Fred had walked over t stare out the window.

"Is it just me or does this thing make your eyes go all funny? You could have chosen somewhere a bit more interesting to call me into. I thought you had escaped this heinous place."

"I thought I had too, but you didn't answer my question or rather my statement. How can I know that you're real?"

"It wasn't as if that ever mattered when you were conscious… It was enough that you could see me." When he turned to her there was a sadness there that she never could have imagined.

"If you were sucked in, Fred, does that mean you were watching me?" He avoided her eyes. "How is she? Natalie, Is she as bad as I was?" She could barely control her sadness from spilling out into tears. This wasn't how her dreams usually went. This felt much more like brief time she had spent in her own imagination. "Is she more fun than me?"

"I don't think that anybody could be worse than you were. And anyway it was mostly me that came up with all the really good pranks." He sighed. "I miss you when you were little."

"I miss me too…, sometimes. Growing up wasn't all it was cracked up to be." She sat down on the bench and put her head in her hands. "I don't know who I am anymore, I mean you helped me get me back but I don't know what to do with my life, my future. Mickey wants to be a part of it but I just, I just don't know.|" She sobbed quietly.

Silently Fred sat down beside her. For once he was silent, unsure what to do with her. He settled for patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. Prompted by this small amount of contact, Lizzie threw her arms around his neck, taking comfort in his familiar presence. "I miss you, already."

Fred was well out of his depth, girls crying had never really been his strong suit. He hugged her gently and let her rest her head against his chest.

"I miss you too, Snot face." He held back all that he was feeling beyond that. It was all too confusing. In that moment, they simply held together and hoped that morning wouldn't come/.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry If this chapter is a bit unpolished but I wanted to get it out there so people didn't think that this was just a one shot. There will be more Fred and Lizzie soon I promise, I've just been muddling about in plot ideas. Also, it will get better, so don't be bored yet.

Lizzie was awoken by a knock on her door. She rubbed the feeling back into her cheek and looking into a mirror, she smoothed her hair and tried to rub out the imprint of the pile on her face.

"Just a minute, I'm coming." She called through the door and put on a dressing gown. Who could be visiting at, … she checked the clock in the hall, oh no, it was 10.45 already. She opened the door to reveal Mickey and standing next to him was his daughter Natalie. She smiled shyly at her

"Hey." Mickey smiled. "Oh, sorry, did we wake you?" He took in the dressing gown.

"Um, no..., Oh this. I spilled something on my dress and was going to change this."

"Oh OK, I'm here to drop off Natalie. You are still free to baby sit?" Natalie frowned at the term, she most likely considered herself far too old for the phrase. Lizzie had completely forgotten that she had offered to babysit the following Monday, the last time she had seen them, the babysitter had walked out and had promptly had been strung up.

"Um, yeah, fine, come in." She tried to disguise any surprise she might have close to revealing. Mickey knelt and straightened Natalie's his daughter's jacket.

"Thanks. So, Natalie remember what I said. This is very good of Elizabeth and you can't act like you usually do with your nannies. Agreed?"

"But she said she believes in him and I can't exactly control him." She blanched under his look.

"Yes, daddy." Mickey left after many hugs and repetitions of his thanks. He walked out of the door and down the hall. Lizzie closed it behind him. She glanced for a moment at the young blonde girl who was nervously slapping at thin air. Lizzie had an idea.

"Ok Natalie, why don't you go and sit on the sofa while I put something else on?" She changed as quickly as she was able, hoping that she wouldn't find any chaos juts yet. There was a crash from the living room. Oh well, it was only karmic retribution after all. Considering all the trouble she must have been. With good reason. She rushed in to see a pile of broken glass.

"I didn't do it, I swear." Lizzie was relieved to find that it was only one of Charles' so called pieces of art. It was an ugly eyesore. Just another of the things she had had to put up with in that marriage. Natalie looked at her with fear in her eyes. Clearly this was when she expected to be sharply told off. Lizzie smiled.

"Oh don't worry about that, it was my husband's but if you are going to let him run rampant please try and avoid anything that isn't tacky artwork."

"What you aren't going to yell at me?"

"Why? I know you didn't do it and besides I hated that thing. Now, this is going to sound odd but could I ask Drop Dead Fred a few questions?"

Natalie liked this new friend of her father's. She did not punish her and force her to eat yucky vegetables the colour of something that came out of your nose. And she believed in HIM. Lizzie had sat her down on the sofa."

"Ugh, talking is boring, it's for grownups, I want to smash something else." Fred was eyeing up the goldfish tank. "What do you think would happen if I put food dye in here? I disappearance and reappeared in the kitchen and started rifling through the drawers. "There has to be some here3."

"Natalie look at me." Lizzie followed her eye line."Fred stop that." He spun around at the sound of his name.

"Oi, tell tale, stop looking at me; you're telling her where I am."

"Listen, this is very important. Can you ask Fred something for me?"

"He can hear you."

"Oh right, well I can't see him so could you tell me what his answers are?"

"Yes." She ignored the signs Fred was making at her. Natalie couldn't imagine what it would be like to not see Fred when he was right there with you...

"Good, this is ridiculous... Fred do you remember me?" She looked around the room. Fred jumped onto the sofa.

"Tell her to stop that, she's not supposed to know I'm here." Natalie bit her lip.

"He says that you're not supposed to know about him." Lizzie sighed and muttered about his stubbornness.

"Yes, I know there are probably some sort of rules against this sort of thing" She gave a sly grin. "but I thought that Fred was above rules."

"Ah, good point." was all Fred could say.

"Fred, do you know who I am " She persisted. Fred was trying not to look at her.

"Yes." He muttered. "I managed to hang on to those memories."

"Yes, he says."

"Good, can he prove it, can he tell you his nickname for me and why he went away from me for so many years?"

"Hey, I really don't think that this is a good idea." Fred looked distinctly uncomfortable. Natalie turned to him.

"But what if she misses you? I would." Fred ran his hands through his hair.

"Just tell her to ask them quickly, they could be listening in."

"He says ask quickly."

"And tell her snotface is an idiot and it was the jack in the box by the megabeast." She shrugged.

"Snotface is an idiot and the jack in the box by the megabeast." Lizzie's face brightened noticeably. Fred reached out as if to touch her face but remembered himself and pulled back.

"That's right This is amazing. Um, concentrate, this is important. I need to know if Fred was really in my dream last night." At the mention of dreams Fred jumped to his feet, nervously fidgeting with the hem of his jacket.

"Dreams, I'm not sure. What dreams? This just doesn't happen. It shouldn't, ask her if she was in her mother's house."

"He's babbling and he wants to know if it was in your mother's house."This woman was smiling so much that she thought her ears might fall off.

"Yes, fine , that's it exactly. I can't believe it."

Fred wasn't sure he liked things like this. It was impossible. Nothing like this had happened before. It was astronomical. He looked over at Lizzie. He had held onto his memories of her when they tried to go fuzzy like all the others. And now it was all crowding around him. It was all way too much. He wanted to touch her, to feel that she was really there and not something he had imagined. If he wasn't careful, she would slip away. It was like holding sand in a sieve. But somehow magically, so far, the sieve still held most of its contents. He was not used to such strong emotions. And to realise that his dream, of her, had been hers as well sent happy shocks all the way through his spine.

Lizzie paced the length of her small apartment. She was alone again and too excited to sleep. She had taken a sleeping pill and was waiting for it to kick in. She sat down on the bed and closed her eyes. Within moments she collapsed on the bed.

"Lizzie what are you doing?" She spun around, this time she?they appeared to be standing on the platform of a train station, it was deserted and for some reason she was sure that there would be a forest if she took the door that lead into the ticket office,

"Why are we here? Hold on, I'm dreaming and I know it, so I should be able able to change things." She closed her eyes and imagined a quiet lounge in the lobby of a high end hotel. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by a slightly skewed version of the same and an increasingly annoyed Fred. What are you planning?"

"Thank you for coming back." She smiled. "I needed to make sure that you were real and that I had not only dreamt about you. I didn't mean to annoy or upset you but I ...I had to know." She gazed at her hands.

"There are rules you know and it seems as if you are intent on breaking all of them."

"Since when does Drop Dead Fred care about rules."

"When 'they' could take me away if I don't follow them. I've never actually heard of them doing it's very clear on punishment."

"They?"

"That doesn't matter, I've already said more than I should."

"Freddie, stop avoiding my questions."

"Was that a pop culture reference?"

"What?"

"You know Friday the Thirteenth, can control people's dreams..." Lizzie poked him, hard.

"I told you to stop avoiding my questions, if you not going to talk to me then you might as well leave." She folded her arms and sat down on the first available surface which turned out to be a coffee table. Fred sighed and joined her. He nudged her shoulder with his own. "Lighten up, snotface, you're digging in a place which isn't safe. Promise me that you'll stop this, its dangerous , for the both of us and I want to be able to see you, which I can do right now"

"I won't promise to stop but I'll lay off the interrogations for now but Fred I don't just want to be able to see you in dreams."

"Oh I don't know, it's quite cosy." Fred caught hold of her hands and stared into her eyes. "Seeing as this is your dream, do you reckon we could go somewhere a bit more lively." She smiled at him and nodded.

"Sure."


	3. Chapter 3

Fred and lizzie

Lizzie found herself on a chaise lounge in the parlour of some rich mansion she'd probably seen on tv a couple of days before. She was lying on her front with her face propped up by her arms. When she looked up Fred was leaning against the wall half – covered in mud, or chocolate.

"What have you been up to?" Fred plucked at his muddy jacket.

"Oh this, I'll have you know I've been making mud pies with an inexhaustible little girl." 

"Without me?" She pouted at him playfully."

"You wouldn't want to anyway."

"I might." She interjected. "come over here, you're too far away." Fred sauntered across, taking as much time as he wanted.

"As much as I like spending time with you, should you really be taking so many naps in the day?"

"What time is it?"

She jolted awake on the bus. She had to get control of these bizarre sleep patterns. They were becoming more and more erratic. It was almost as if they were controlling her. She struggled to stay awake as she saw her stop approaching. On the way to the office building, she purchased a tall latte. Something she rarely did. The hot, rich sips slid down her throat and made her feel somewhat human. The cup landed easily in the open bin outside the stretching sky scraper. She pulled her pencil skirt down. She wasn't used to such tight clothing but she was aware that it made her look more professional. She settled into business mode.

The elevator docked and spewed out it's human cargo. The building was your basic commercial quasi artistic décor inside. She stepped into the elevator, coat off and neatly folded over one arm. The three other people in the small space, stared politely into the distance as she fidgeted with her new briefcase. The journey was surprisingly short and she remained a little startled to find herself so quickly sitting in a waiting room opposite an official looking receptionist at whom she smiled nervously. It didn't hurt to be amiable. She dug her fingernails into the palm of her other hand to prevent herself nodding off as she waited for the coffee to take full effect. She recalled the last time she had been sitting in such an officy environment. The psychiatrist. She shuddered and found herself searching the arm chairs in the neat little semi – circle. No Fred; she was startled by a voice calling her name.

"Elizabeth Cronen."

"Yes?" Her eyes flicked up to a stern looking woman in dark slacks and a cream blouse.

"Come with me." Lizzie sat up hurriedly and fetched her briefcase. The woman began walking away before Lizzie had a chance to speak. "I need a legal secretary; the last girl was far too slow. You can type I take it/" 

"Yes, I maintained a post as documenter in a busy courtroom for three years, if you will let me show you my credentials..."

"There will be time for that later. Why did you leave this job?"

"I was dismissed. Um, I was late because my car had been stolen, I had also lost my husband, I don't think the judge believed me."

"Miss Cronen, that is an awful story. However if you are going to work for me you will need a certain amount of resilience. Judging by what you have just told me, this is not something that you have." Lizzie felt her heart sinking. Bur she found herself remembering her recently empowering experience.

"Madam, I will have you know that the collapse of my marriage was in no way accountable to me. My husband was a cheating lowlife who I have since expunged from my life. I will not let anybody take advantage of me and the very fact that you would dismiss my application fro a misfortune which was only part of my own making due to my previous mistaking charm for something genuine causes me to rethink this..." She trailed off. The woman speared her with her gaze.

"Now that is more impressive. You see, the legal profession requires passion, cunning and above all a strong sense of conviction. Now tell me, do you wish to show this husband of yours that you have these things?" Lizzie smiled as she passed an artistically placed mural detailing the name of the company. Haywood and Bugle, Divorce and Defence.

It was some time later that Lizzie found herself closing the front door of her apartment. She dropped her bag onto the floor beneath the umbrella stand. The job wasn't hers for certain but she had a call – back in the next week. She imagined what Fred would say. Probably he would criticize her choice of profession, law = dull . Frankly, she would have to agree with him but mother had thought secretarial work a fitting career for a young woman in the eighties and she had to work with the experience she had. She knew she had had a dream once but she no longer remembered what it was. Perhaps Fred would know. She could feel sleep beckoning. She blinked and jumped when the phone rang.

"Um hello?"

"Lizzie, sorry to call again so soon but I was wondering if you would like to come for a meal with Natalie and me. You really made an impression with her and it would be great if you could come. I'm babbling, aren't I? Sorry, if you don't want to..."

"Mickey, stop. Its fine. I'd love to." She swatted away the part of her mind that still considered him a little weak. She could thank Fred for that.

"Oh that's great, shall we say Friday then?"

"Yes that's fine."

"I have to pick up Natalie from Kindergarten, I could pick up before that, say three?"

"I can make that."

"Great, um I never know how to end phone calls without being awkward..."

"Goodbye Mickey." She laughed, lightly replacing the receiver. She wasn't sure she should be encouraging him. But Fred was near to him and his daughter and she couldn't lose that connection.

Yes, it was completely selfish, but she had been rather too selfless for the past eighteen years.

In that moment, she understood one of three things. One, she might just have an idea about seeing Fred again and that involved doing a little bit of playing around in Mickey's life. Two, she could not fall in love with Mickey. Three, in order to solve the first two situations she must find a certain someone for Mickey that wasn't her. It was time to consult her ex-imaginary friend.

Sorry if the law talk was completely unbelievable, I know next to nothing about the legal profession. More Fred in next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

Lizzie found that she was sitting by a very beautiful lake which could be anywhere in the world. It was likely she had seen it in a watch advert in National Geographic or something. All was peaceful. Fred wasn't there. She felt uneasy for no reason. She surveyed the tree line around the lake. The sky had a decidedly purple haze that bled down into the trees. They were not reflected into the water. That was strange. The water looked cool and clear. She knew that she would not feel it if she were to touch it. She had read somewhere that water in dreams put you in danger of ahem, watering your bed. Unfamiliar, rustling sounds drifted from the wood. She looked behind her but saw nothing but trees and the whiteness behind. And then a shape in the corner of her eye. An irrational fear sprung up and clenched her heart in its palm. She stumbled back over the log she realised she had been sitting on. The land around her gave nothing away. A roar came from the woods and she fled running toward the water. She hit water and kept going. She was fairly sure she could swim in dreams. The water didn't seem to drag at her the way it would have in real life. True enough, she felt nothing as she slipped into the water. The creature broke through the trees and chased her to the water's edge but would go no further. Even though she was looking straight at it, it was if she couldn't really see it. It was like looking through a magnifying glass that was too close to the object. Whatever it was, it was familiar and yet so terrifying, she couldn't put it into words. And then she began to sink. No matter how had she fought or struggled against it she fell further into the water. She could still breath but she didn't register that on any sane level. All she cared about was that she was falling into the darkness ad she was alone.

"Fred! Help me." She called his name over and over. Finally she gave up, allowing herself to drift further downward. Somewhere deep inside, she tried to tell herself that she was asleep ,that this was all a dream. But that voice was very small.

Suddenly strong arms scooped her up and pulled her up through the darkness. They broke the surface together and she clung to him.

"I'M here Lizzie."

"Why did you take so long?"

"I didn't hear you."

"But you always hear me." She froze as he tried to pull her to the shore. "No, Fred, there's something there.

"Then why don't you take us somewhere else."

"Somewhere else." She quirked up her mouth at him. "Right; dream." They found themselves in a ballroom full of faceless dancers decked out from various centuries and jumbled mad fantastical costumes. Fred and Lizzie didn't feel like letting go though perhaps she had never been in any real danger, but it did not feel that way. Fred allowed her to nestle in his arms His arms were protective. She had never felt so safe. She could feel certain inclinations rising in her stomach that could exist because they were romantic. And Fred couldn't be further from her romantic thoughts, right? She shook it off. Technically she was supposed to be heartbroken over her awful slime ball of a husband. But Fred had soon put paid to any feeling she might have over him. That would have been old Lizzie who felt any association with him. Now that she had regained her moral and human strength and fire.

"Fred?"

"Yes, Lizzie."

"I haven't seen you as much lately, where have you been?" Fred smiled wryly.

"Doing my job." Lizzie smiled.

"At night?"

"You have been sleeping more in the day and yes, Natalie is having nightmare recently. She misses her mother." Fred looked down.

"Where is she?" 

"Off with a man in Barbados, I think.

"I've noticed that single parents tend to attract imaginary friends."

"I was there for you before you're father left."

"Yes, but things were always strained."

"Did you know that my father would leave before he did?"

"I had some inkling."

"But did you know?"

"Not entirely, no."

"But you could have warned me."

"I didn't want to upset you." Lizzie looked away. "Lizzie, please don't, let's not argue." He frowned.

"You've been having lots of these nightmares, recently. You've never had so many worries before. Is it me? Am I interrupting your dreams?"

"No, Fred, don't think that. You are great, I don't want you to go. I need you Fred."

"If you need me then perhaps that's why I heard your call."

"But I don't, at least not in the way I used to."

"It doesn't matter. As you want me here, I will be until they drag me away." He hugged her to him.

"Fred, I'm scared. I can't lose you a third time." She brought her hands up to his face and kissed him on the chin and forehead. He looked away.

"Do you hear it?"He smiled

"The music?" He took her by the hand and spun her away from then back to him."

"Fred, I really don't think that now is the time."

"Oh , you know me, I can never stay serious fir very long. I'm far to immature." Lizzie laughed and despite herself. He spun them around.

"You don't know how true that is." Lizzie found herself wondering at how strong he was and wondering what what he might look like without the crazy ensemble she always saw him in. Though she confess that she rather liked it. She blushed and Fred noticed that she wore an approximation of the dress she had worn to the wine tasting except that it was now red and strapless. He did a double take. Lizzie was sexy. This was wrong. She was his snot face. But she wasn't little snot-face any more; she was a woman.

She was beautiful and that did something to him that he was not OK with. He wasn't quite sure he liked the look in her eyes and pulled away.

"What is it Fred?"

"This isn't right,Lizzie

"What?" 

"I'm holding you back. You should be with Mickey. That was how your life was supposed to go."

"What's got into you? There's just one thing wrong with your theory. I don't love Mickey."

Lizzie rested her head on his shoulder. They moved gently into the rhythm of the music. They were one moving creature in the ballroom. If Lizzie noticed that Fred held on to her a little tighter than before she didn't mention it. As they swayed in the lilting pull of otherworldly notes in a never-ending room which looked very much like the beauty of Versailles.

Lizzie woke to the light streaming through the penthouse and brining her gently up to conscious thought. She felt a multitude of warring emotions in her gut as she sprang up from her bed. Fred had left her much to think about. She felt a twist of fear in her stomach that existed every time she woke and feared that he would never see him again. She rubbed her eyes and slid out of bed. A twinge of loneliness appeared and she pushed it down. Padding over to the kitchen she made herself a small espresso. There were benefits to keeping Charles' flat. it was the least he could do, to let her have the flat. The hot small cup balanced in her hand as she looked at the flat. She was going to have to change things. Like, the décor, she had to pack up everything that reminded her of Charles and her wastrel marriage. Still in her dressing gown, she began to gather every piece of Charles from the flat and deposit it in the hallway. As she worked it became very clear how little of her was in that apartment. Charles had completely taken her over. No wonder he had gotten bored, she had totally lost herself in him. The flat was bare without the presence of al of Charles' possessions. She made a mental note to go shopping for a touch of herself.

The phone chirped loud and sudden. Lizzie scooped it up and held it to her ear.

"Hey."

"Elizabeth?" 

"Here. Hey, Mickey."

"Hi, I'm running late See you in an hour." An hour? Lizzie checked the clock What was up with her sleep patterns? Dressing quickly, Lizzie threw her keys in her bag. It was ime to put her plan into action. The nagging doubt that told her she was in danger from unseen forces was puhed firmly back to the very furthest part of her consciousness. She was out the door and ready long before she needed to be and walking along the street. Mickey would have to pick her up from wherever she called him from, she had less than half an hour before he would need to be called.

Lizzie stepped out onto the pavement, bag slung over her shoulder. She had just managed to reach the bottom of her flat building. He honked and she slid into the passenger seat. He smiled shyly and she returned the smile. He pulled off in his car and drove away.

"So where are we going? After we pick up Natalie, I mean." Mickey kept his eyes on the road.

"It's a surprise." 

"I just hope it isn't that restaurant in the mall."

"Yeah, I don't think that they would let us back in." He frowned playfully at her. "You're not going to throw food around again, are you? Because Natalie would probably join in."

"No, Mickey, that wasn't me." She laughed. Mickey frowned slightly.

"The ubiquitous Fred."

"Yeah."

The rest of the drive passed in relative ease.

They pulled up in front of a bright building with a large mural of a butterfly with two words printed across it. Mickey pulled into a parking space and stopped the engine. Lizzie followed Mickey into the yard and up the path just as a bell rang from inside. A little girl with blonde hair opened the door and barrelled into Mickey.

"Daddy, Fred and I have been..."

"Causing havoc." A young lady with strawberry blonde hair, green eyes and glasses stepped out of the room. She smiled and looked down as she saw Mickey. Mickey flushed a little.

"I'm sorry. Miss Foster, it won't happen again, it's just her mother is absent.

"Mia. Imaginary friends are common at this age but this getting out of hand. Two of the other children are covered in paint."

"Were they antagonising Natalie?" Lizzie broke in.

"Well, children can be a little..."

"That's a yes." Mickey and Miss Foster began to gently argue as Natalie looked rather stricken. Lizzie smiled at her. It looked as if Lizzie had found her solution to the Mickey problem.

Fred watched Lizzie as they ate in a small semi – expensive Bistro. He wasn't sure he liked the look in Lizzie' eye when they had come to pick up Natalie. Either she was up to something or she was jealous of the schoolteacher. He almost wished that it was the former because then it wouldn't mean that she was falling for Mickey and that he would have to watch as she lived happily ever after with someone who didn't deserve her. If that were true the best he could hope for is that having a mother figure would make Natalie not need him for much longer. Because he couldn't stick around to watch Lizzie happy with someone else. But it would also mean that he would never see her again. It seemed no matter where he turned he would lose her. It was better that way.

"Fred, why do you get all strange when Lizzie is with us?" Natalie tugged on Fred's coat.

"Hmm...? What? Oh, what do you mean strange?"

"All gooey eyed and thoughtful."

"Do I?"

"Yeah, you get all glum and look like this." She leaned on her hand and did the best approximation of a lovesick fool that she could manage. The effect would have been comical had it not been oto close to the mark. She crossed her eyes. Fred sighed.

"You look ridiculous."

"I'm only being you. You look like one of those floppy haired men in mum's soppy films."

"Is that right? Floppy haired? I'll have you know that my hair is always this perky." Natalie blanched as she saw the look in his eye. "All right. That's it." He seized her and began to tickle her mercilessly. She shrieked and tried to wriggle free. But she was trapped. Mickey began to stare at his daughter in horror as she appeared to be having a fit.

"Natalie honey, what are you doing? People are staring."

"Fred...stop it." Mickey rolled his eyes.

"Natalie stop this nonsense."

"But I can't stop him." Lizzie smiled wickedly.

"You know what I used to do to get my imaginary friend to stop?" Mickey looked uncertain.

"Um, Lizzie can I talk to you." He indicated away to where the hallway to the bathrooms stood. She followed him quizzically. He pulled her aside.


	5. Chapter 5

**Micky** spoke in hushed tones.He wasn't angry, just concerned. There was hint of wryness to his tone.

"I hope you don't intend to repeat our last encounter with food. As much as I enjoy your antics, I have a feeling that Natalie would probably join in and then there'd be no stopping her."

"That wasn't me."

"Right, Fred."

"How is it do you think that Natalie heard about him?"

"Hmm."

"I mean, I never mentioned him when I was talking about you. How is it that she heard that name? I assume that's why her imaginary friend has the same name as yours? Did you tell her about him?"

"No, I suppose you still don't believe me."

"You said yourself that you were crazy, that you were losing your mind. Though, clearly you got better."

"Micky you saw me do things that I obviously had no control over."

"I don't really know what I saw. Lizzie, you don't honestly believe that he was real, do you?" Lizzie sighed.

"It sure felt real." She muttered. She shrugged as if to abandon the subject. "No, of course not. But it was a part of me that I wasn't entirely connected with. You're in no danger of being thrown out." Micky smiled.

"Ok, I am going to use the men's room. See you in ten minutes." Lizzie returned to the table and looked out the window. She listened absently to Natalie's chatter and closed her eyes for a moment.

**She** was lying across his lap. He was sitting on a tree stump. They were at the edge of a forest, beautiful and foreboding. IT was not a safe forest. It looked like the kind where monsters lived in fairy tales. But she was not afraid, because Fred was beside her.

"If you could have me see you again, would you want that?" Fred traced her cheek/jaw line meditatively.

"I'd rather be able to touch you again. I miss you. You know, you said that we … there was a memory you mentioned, about us, that we were on the beach, you were burying your father in the sand, I was helping. It was a good moment. Patches of it are gone, like the time we burned a hole into your mega – beast's favourite shirt. I can see the rest. But holes are appearing." Lizzie looked up at him, thoughtfully.

"Do you think that it's the people you warned me about?"

"Yes. It doesn't feel like the natural moving on process. It's like they're being forced out of my head."

"But you're fighting them?"

"At every turn"

"But you think that they will win in the end." She space around them suddenly seemed cold and desolate. "How can a body of people devoted to making children happy be so ruthless?"

"Because if they allowed to get attached to any one person, then new children wouldn't be helped. I understand why they want to do this but in this particular instance things are different."

"Are you sure there is no way of contacting them?"

"Nobody has ever dared to try. It isn't like a government that you can petition or arrange to meet."

"Well what are they like? Do you know anything about them at all?"

"I don't but perhaps one of the others have?"

"Can you contact them?"

"I can only see my friends when the child that they are currently with is in the same area as the child I am with."

"Do you think that you could engineer that? The last time you saw them was at that doctor's office." Lizzie opened her eyes. Micky had come back from the men's room. She couldn't believe that she had dozed off in the middle of dinner. She lifted her head from where it leaned against her hand.

**Lizzie** looked across at the girl who seemed to be conversing with empty air. An air of sadness replaced the satisfaction that had existed after she had discovered the solution to at least one of her current problems. Micky was discussing the meal and complimenting her on her choice of restaurant. She was being rude but she seemed only to notice the absence at the table that had been filled the last time with a very large presence. Micky leaned in, smiling and spoke into her ear.

"Tell me about Miss -. She seems like a nice person." Micky blushed a little.

"She's new to the school. She's been very understanding about Natalie. You know, because she's going through such a difficult time in her life what with her mother disappearing on her." He had lowered his voice but Natalie seemed oblivious.

"I think that she just needs understanding. That's what my parents couldn't seem to see."

"I am trying to understand but she is pushing me to the end of my wits. You know that no nanny will stay for long with such a difficult child. I have this appointment with a doctor about imaginary friends. I think that he was the same doctor you were sent to." Lizzie tensed. She knew that she should warn them but she remembered the conversation she had had with Fred.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I don't know what else to do." Feeling like a turncoat for not dissuading him from this idea, she held her tongue.

"Micky can you do one thing for me. Don't let her take the green pills the doctor gives out. They made me feel really strange when I was taking them. I didn't finish the course and I'm still Fred – free." Micky looked at her strangely.

"They made you sick?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, I'll keep that in mind when we go to see him." Micky reached across the table and pushed aside his daughter's messy fringe. She smiled at him. Lizzie ducked her head, to be present for such a sweet moment. It made her sad to remember the way that things used to be with her own father.

"Were gonna be ok.

**Lizzie **closed the door of her apartment quietly and threw her bag down on the kitchen counter. She began to set about making coffee. She didn't want to fall asleep for a while. She didn't want to face Fred just yet/ Especially given the likelihood that he felt betrayed that she had let something she could have stopped so easily go ahead. She also had a lot to think through. She found herself addressing the empty room as if Fred were present. For all she knew, he could be.

"I've been thinking about nursery rhymes and chants; they seem to me a bit like spells for safety and deliverance. They meant something, even if it was only in the mind of the child. But what if those words that I said weren't so much to separate my own mind from yours but to banish you once I didn't need you anymore? I keep trying to remember, just what it was that I did to make him appear in the first place. I was too young though, to have any real connection." Something then occurred to her which she pushed down where it belonged. It simply couldn't be that simple. She ran into her bedroom where the jack in the box sat on her dresser. She grasped it in her arms, holding it to her chest.

She screwed up her face like a child, willing it to work.

"Drop Dead Fred." She held her breath and opened one eye. She sighed with disappointment. The empty room stood in accusation of her ridiculous hope.

"You called." She screamed. And he was there. For a moment she was far too overjoyed that he as there to notice that he did not look like he had in her dreams. "What's the matter?" He looked around. "This looks a little dull for a dream. I think you need to have a talk with your imagination."

"But I'm not dreaming." He frowned. She looked at him, really looked at him. Something was wrong. He looked down at himself and her worry began to be reflected in his face.

"Lizzie, what did you do?"

_Sorry the chapter is a little short and disorganised but I felt the need to get a new chapter out. It is a little rushed because I wanted to move the plot forward. Hope you enjoy! xxx_


	6. Chapter 6

**They** both stared agape at Fred's chest through which she could see the bookcase by her bed. Though the rest of him was moderately solid, it seemed as if he tapered off in the middle, to the point where at hi very centre, she could see right through him. It was as if only half of him existed in that space, like a ghost. For a moment she could only watch, aghast.

"Fred!"

"Something is wrong. I feel torn… between two places." Lizzie stepped forward reaching out a hand toward him. Fred shrank back a little, afraid of what she might find. Her hand did not go right through his as she had expected but it felt as if she were brushing against something like jelly. "What did you do? How can you see me?"

"I spoke the words that I used to let you go. I didn't think it would work. "

"Why would you try it then?"

"I hoped it would work. I wanted to see you." Fred sighed.

"You can't do that. I am still bound to Natalie, if you bind me to you as well; I am forced to be in two places at once."

"Are you with her now?"

"Yes. I was reading her a story. This is really strange." He blinked. "I can see both rooms."

"Fred, I'm sorry. What should I do about it?" Lizzie hurriedly quashed the sudden malicious thought that Natalie might be convinced to give him up. She sighed. She knew what she had to do.

She closed her eyes and quietly said the words. When she opened them again, Fred was still there. But he was not disappearing. Instead, Lizzie watched him become solid before her eyes, like a pitcher being filled with milk only starting from the top rather than the bottom. Fred seemed surprised at what was occurring before him. When it was over, he reached out to touch Lizzie and felt her completely. There was nothing keeping her away from him and he was substantial enough that she could feel him touch her.

"That wasn't supposed to happen." Lizzie bit her lip.

"Did I do something wrong?"

Fred was looking at her with a great deal of tenderness and a little sadness.

"You know. I think that you have to mean it. Otherwise it doesn't work. Like when a child says a nursery rhyme to keep them safe, it works because they believe it will and because they need it to. You want the opposite of what you are asking for. It's unusual I don't have any memory of this sort of spell working for an adult." Lizzie looked down at his hands as they covered hers.

"You think it could be because I need you again. Because there are different ways to need someone, or want…"

"But Natalie needs me too." It's seemed that the more childish she became, the more sensible Fred was. "I can't just abandon her."

"Give me one day." She clutched at his hand. "Then I'll say it and mean it. I know you have to get back, I do. I've just been so lonely lately. Even with this new job."

"Lizzie."

"I got used to you, you know. And then you were gone. I mean, I would be OK, if things hadn't changed for me."

"Lizzie, I can't… it would be worse if we did…" He looked at her with the conflict clear in his features. "Fine. Ok." He pulled her toward him and kissed her. Once. On the forehead. She was having none of it. She took what she had been wanting to do for so long and pressed her lips against Fred's for the first time. He did not push her away as she had thought he might but instead pulled her tighter. His hands clasping her waist. She had been awakening strong feelings in him for a long time. Feelings that he wasn't sure still existed for him. Now, to have her there and be able to touch her, that she could see him outside of her imagination; it was too much of a temptation. When she pulled him back toward her bed, part of him knew that he shouldn't be doing this but the rest of him wanted this too much. He was not this responsible person that he had recently been trying to convince himself he was to distract himself from what he wanted. He had never been strong. So he allowed himself to give in to what he wanted.

**Fred** was in awe of Lizzie. She was so beautiful and asleep, nestled against his chest. He traced her shoulder. He had never thought that he would be here. Lizzie shifted and opened her eyes.

"You know I had been beginning to think that those clothes were a part of you."

"In some ways they are. That's why I can change them at will."  
>"Is that so?" She smiled. "I have been wondering for some time what was underneath." Fred raised an inquisitive eyebrow.<p>

"Do you make a habit of thinking inappropriate thoughts about your male acquaintances?"

"When did you get so wordy?"

"I don't know. It's a knack I have. . . or had." He looked a little startled for a moment before shaking his head. Lizzie propped herself up on her arm.

"Fred? Have you always been an imaginary friend? Where you something before?"

"I don't know. Perhaps, perhaps not, I don't really remember."

"What do you remember?"

"Not much. You and glimpses of others. I remember my friends." Something seemed to come to him. "My friends. Lizzie, is it… what date is it today."

"The twenty fourth. Why?" He looked over at the clock on her bedroom cabinet, an irritating modern contraption lacking numbers of any kind, just metal stripes and not enough to allow you to tell time with any certainty. He deduced that it was somewhere in the vicinity of nine in morning."

"I have to be somewhere. I promised I would." Lizzie automatically knew what he meant. She also knew that it was the only opportunity that they would have to contact any of the other imaginary friends. She nodded. Fred slid out of the bed and began hurriedly throwing on his clothes, looking as dishevelled as ever. "I promise I'll come right back."

"I know you will." Fred vanished in a sparkle of green light. Lizzie sighed and threw the covers over her head in frustration.

**The** room was less full than it had been before. Fred entered with an understandable amount of trepidation. There were only two others. Natalie had been oddly silent since he had returned to her side. She suddenly looked up from her seat beside her father where she had been swinging her legs and looking nervous. She looked up as the secretary ushered her father in. Natalie looked up.

"Fred. Where are you?" She spoke recriminating. "You promised you would be here."

"But I am here." Fred stilled as he began to suspect something. He tried to touch Natalie and found he couldn't. He waved and passed his hand before her face. No reaction. "Natalie?"

Fred was beginning to realise what had happened when a movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention. Namby Pamby had appeared and went to talk with one of the children. When she saw Fred she did not greet him, in fact she shrank away. He knew that look. She was about to disappear. He strode across the room and caught her by the arm.

"Fred, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here with a charge. I've been meaning to talk with you."

"Oh?" She was barely concealing her nerves, her eyes darting about the room. "Why's that?"

"You know why? I need to get a message to those upstairs. You know people, you can find a way to contact people."

"I don't even know if they can be contacted. Tell me quickly. They might be watching. I don't want to be caught with you."

"I thought we were friends." She seemed to reflect on his suspicion with a hurt look."

"We are, Fred. But you did something. I don't know what, but there's been a warning. They are coming after you. Both of you."

"Both of us?"

"The girl with dark hair. You're both in so much trouble. This isn't the way things are supposed to go."

"When are they going to come?" His grip tightened on her arm unconsciously.

"They're already coming." Fred gritted his teeth.

"You remember, get them a message. I need to meet with them, I have a complaint." Namby Pamby nodded and disappeared. The child that had been watching a seemingly one sided exchange began to loo worried. Fred attempted to disappear but found that he could not. Something appeared to be stopping him. Instead, he set off on foot, have only a faint idea of how to get to Lizzie from the last time he had been here. He decided that the best route would be to get to Lizzie's mother's home and then go from there to where she lived. He climbed on the back of cars when he could and rode for part of the way. When he had been travelling for over an hour, he reached Lizzie's apartment complex and found his way to the door. He was forced to wait until someone opened it for him. Though he could disappear at will, he could not walk through walls as easily, never really having the need to master it. Besides he was solid for the most part.

Fred raced back to Lizzie's flat. When he tried appearing in the flat he was stopped again.

"Lizzie!" He hammered on the door. She answered it in her dressing gown, her hair damp from a shower.

"Hey stranger, what took you so long?" When he didn't smile she tilted her head. "What's wrong?" Fred walked past her taking her hand.

"You have to say it, you have to send me back. And then you need to run."

"Run? Fred, what are you talking about?"

"They found out. Maybe if you send me back they will leave us alone. Or you at least. Oh, Lizzie warned you about them."

"You can't be serious."

"Did you think I was joking, this whole time?"

"No, I just… I thought that …" She sighed. "They're coming now?"

"Yes."

"Ok." Lizzie took a moment to gather her thoughts. She knew that she had only a few moments left with him. She threw her arms around him and kissed him. "I will see you again." She drew in her breath to say the words, making sure that she could convey in them the urgency the desire for him to be let free. But she never got to. As she was about to speak she saw something move above their heads. It was much like a black cloud that moved in and out of her vision. When she tried to look right at it, it disappeared. She felt a strange impulse pass over her and found her eyes closing. She could feel her body collapsing beneath and couldn't lift a single muscle to do anything about it. Much in the style of Alice she could feel herself shutting up like a telescope but inside not outside. It was as if she was being sucked into a void.

Fred watched as Lizzie fell down in his arms. He shook her but got no response. He looked up at the swirling, coiling smoke-like mass above their heads and felt a pop.

He suddenly was back with Natalie.

"Fred!" She ran over to him and threw her arms around his waist. She had clearly been crying. "I thought you had left me. I thought you were never coming back, like mom."

"No." He said quietly. Unable to quite comprehend what had just happened. "I'm not going anywhere just yet."

_Too dramatic? Too sudden? What do you think?_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Fred**_ was in the middle of the worst dilemma of his life. He sat on the sofa in Mickey's apartment, legs crossed and feeling hopeless. Natalie was playing beside the Christmas tree with the puppy Mickey had got her to keep her company while he worked in his study during the weekend. It was only a few days until Christmas and that made his predicament all the worse. He had to maintain a façade of usual Christmas jolliness and anticipation. The reason he was there and not with Lizzie, trying, no matter how much in vain to pull her back to him was that he had discovered that it was impossible to be more than a few metres away from Natalie at any time. He had tried once to leave and been thrown back. Whether he was tied to her or if there was some kind of force preventing from straying far away from his charge, he could not leave and that fact was almost solely responsible for his sense of utter uselessness. He did not know what had happened to Lizzie while he was there and after he left. For all he knew, she was still there, collapsed on the floor. This thought was the worst to cope with, that there was no one to help her. His hands were tied.

He had turned what had happened over in his mind, again after the incident, after he was done hurting himself trying to break through the restrictions set on him. He was sure that Natalie was aware that something was wrong; she was a very perceptive little girl. She knew that he was hiding deeper pain and hurt feelings. He had gone through all the possible things that they could have done to her. Whatever they had done to her, he could do nothing to help her.

"Fred, come and play with me. We want to play chase and you can be it."

"Is that so?" He gave her one of his trademark devilish grins, though it felt a little strained.  
>"Yes. You have to count to ten though because my legs are shorter than yours." Her puppy came up and put his nose onto the seat of, looking directly at Fred and whining. He could not hide himself from animals, especially dogs, though he had managed to convince the little dog that he meant no harm to his new mistress. He stood up and began to count. Natalie let out a shriek of both joy and fear before running out of the room. Fred sighed, counted to ten and ran after her, the dog excitedly following behind them.<p>

**Lizzie **screamed into the blackness, her eyes of no use to her there. She wandered forward searching for anything, a light to lead her out of the darkness that never seemed to end. She had shouted for help first then curled up and cried a little. Each time she opened her eyes and failed to see anything sent her into fits of sobbing or rage. She had always been afraid of the dark when she was small. The primal fear had returned. She had long since gone hoarse from calling out into the dark. At first she had called for Fred. She was sure that he must hear her and he was the only one that could come to her here, he had been there when she fell. She knew that none of this was real; she knew that they had somehow trapped her inside her own head. She also knew that she couldn't get out on her own, just like she had been when drowning. This wasn't like when she shook herself out of a nightmare and she had only managed it once. This was a punishment intended solely for her. Goodness knows what would happen to Fred once his time was up with Natalie, if they hadn't taken him already.

"Do you hear me? I know you're watching. You won't break me, and I don't believe you can kill me so I am going to find a way out of here or Fred will come for me and then you will be sorry. Because if you don't let me out I will find you and I will destroy you." Her conviction was weakened a little by the sob that broke up the last word.

She had been walking for so long and it never seemed to end. There was nothing that her hands could feel for, nothing tactile at all. She had come up against no walls. There had to be something keeping her there.

"Come on, this is my mind, I can control it." She sat crossed –legged suddenly, seeing no point in her continued quest into the unknown. It might go on forever. She had to think. She closed her eyes so that she could pretend that the dark was of her own making. Besides the darkness had begun to feel as if it was pressing down on her eyes as she sought desperately for even a speck of light. She envisioned a door in the light, one that led if not to safety then at least to somewhere where she might hide. She cracked open one eyelid. Nothing.

She closed her eyes and tried again, this time focusing only on light. When she opened her eyes a second time, she was surprised to see a faint glow from the corner of her eye. When she looked that way, though, it disappeared. She turned her head again and saw the light. It would have to do. It was a comfort, and to her it might have been a beacon. She stood up and began to walk again, keeping the glow always in her sight.

**Fred** had just about reached his limit of patience. He had never had to face a difficult choice, to choose between love and duty before. Those two had always rather gone in tandem. Now they diverged so sharply that it almost made him dizzy. Of course, they had not given him much of a choice. All he could do was work around what they had decreed. They had given him the insurmountable obstacle of keeping him trapped next to his charge. Whether he loved her or not, the truth was the Natalie was no longer his only concern. And right now, Lizzie had the greater need of him. Natalie was growing happy. Mickey was dating her teacher, a woman that she loved and she had her puppy. She still needed him, though. His work was not done here.

But he had to help Lizzie, she could be dying or in pain. He could not leave Natalie, whether he wanted or not. So, he must somehow get Natalie to Lizzie. He did not care what happened to him if he could ensure Lizzie's safety. They would not hurt Natalie for her part. But he would not trick her, he would ask her. She was warming herself by the electric fire, watching the false flames as they danced in an approximation of real fire. Fred popped over beside her.

"Natalie, if I told you that a friend of mine was in danger, someone you now, would you want to help?" She tilted her head in the same way that the puppy was prone to doing.

"Of course, Fred, but what can I do?"

"I need you to convince your father to take you to see Lizzie at her flat."

"Lizzie's in trouble?" Natalie was alarmed now. She turned around and looked up at him, the puppy leaning against her leg.

"I'm not going to sugar-coat it. Lizzie is in a lot of trouble and I can't get to her."

"You were with her before, when I couldn't find you." He closed his eyes.

"Yes, I was." He sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Do you love her?" She looked up at him, far too trusting. It made him feel like a bastard. There was only the truth.

"Yes, very much."

"More than you love me?"

"It's a different kind of love. The kind that your parents used to have, the kind that might be developing between him and your teacher." Natalie made a face.

"That's sissy kind of love. I thought you found that disgusting."  
>"I did once but not anymore."<p>

"What changed?"

"Lizzie changed and I did. My charges, my maturity level usually changes with them. I didn't know it until I saw her again after being trapped in a jack-in-the-box for twenty years. I began to feel older more like I had been once upon a time. I covered it up with my usual charm." He smirked ironically. "Now that I'm with you, it's like I'm being tugged in two directions. I don't know how to be anymore. The thing is, we are not allowed to keep attachments beyond the time we are with our charges. Usually we don't fight the forgetting. But I did. I was sneaking away to see her."

"But you said only I can see you."

"That's true. I did not speak to her while she was awake. I could enter her dreams. It started by accident."

"But you've stopped leaving. What happened between you?"

"They found out about us. I don't know what they did but she fell down in my arms. I was holding her as she lost consciousness. I was pulled back here. That's was the last I saw her. For all I know she could still be there. I have a horrible feeling that she's still there unconscious and alone."

"They wouldn't kill her they?"

"I hope not, but I can't be sure. I've never seen anything like this before."

"Why don't you go see her now?"

"I can't. That's why I need you to take me there. I've been tethered to you. I don't know how. I can't go more than a few rooms away from you. I'm stuck here."

"Then we have to go. Lizzie was always kind to me. She believed me when no one else did. She remembered you." Natalie sat up and began to walk into the hall, across the room. She stood on a stool and got her coat. She then found the jar on the work top and grabbed two five dollar bills and the keys to the flat.

"Natalie what are you doing?"

"Daddy says I'm not to disturb him when he's working. Lizzie's flat isn't far. I know the bus to take."

"But it's not safe. You can't go on your own."

"I've been to the shops on my own, once."

"This is different."

"Anyways I won't be alone. I'll have you."

"There's only so much I can do."

"I know you can pick up things. If someone tries to hurt me. You can dump water on their head or throw rocks at them until they go away. Maybe you can hit them. "

"I can't touch other people, only objects or animals."

"You can still throw rocks."

"I suppose."

"Well, come on then." Fred had to act quickly. He went into Micky's study. He was hunched over some papers, looking absorbed. Fred looked for something to get his attention. They were not allowed to communicate with others. But since he had already broken the biggest rule, what was a smaller one to him. In fact, many time imaginary friends had been responsible for people believing in ghosts. Whether there were any actual ghosts, he could not say. He had never run into any. He knocked over the coffee cup that was long cold by Micky' arm. He sighed and went to fetch it, using a tea towel to mop it up. Fred tired again, knowing that Natalie was turning the key in the lock at that very moment. He pulled the papers off the desk. Micky didn't seem to notice. He attempted a last desperate attempt at getting his attention. He tried to yank the collar of his shirt. It wasn't a person, it was an object. Something made him miss. He tried a few more times and was in the middle of an attempt when he himself was yanked away, appearing in the hall. It appeared that Natalie had moved faster than he thought. He couldn't see her outside. He thought about her, sensed where she was and popped up right by her in the lift. She smiled.

"I thought you might turn up if I left. So it is true."

"I still think that you should bring your dad."

"There isn't time to convince him, if your Lizzie is in trouble." My Lizzie. He had a moment of fear that froze him in place.

"Ok. But if you get into any trouble. I'll distract them while you run." He took her hand. "Thank you for this. I won't forget your help." She smiled up at him.

"You're my friend." She spoke it simply, and then took hold of his hand. He was touched by her simple logic. They left the building and began to walk along the sidewalk towards the nearest bus stop. He hoped she knew what she was doing. He didn't even know what Lizzie's neighbourhood was called. He said as much. She told him that she always liked to read the signs when her father drove her anywhere in the car. She knew where to go.

"That doesn't mean you know which stop it is."

"I'll ask." She smiled innocently. "Bus drivers always know their way around the city. Even routes which aren't theirs." It wasn't far. Natalie knelt with difficulty on the slanted seats and read the timetable. "I think this is the right one." She pressed a finger against the plastic. She turned around and sat down on the bench. Fred perused the routes and sat beside her.

"None of those look familiar."

"Sit with me, Fred. There is one in ten minutes and I want to see it." He sighed and sat beside her. She swung her legs and kept a lookout for the bus. It came when she said. She had the coins in her hand jingling and scraping together. She hopped off and inclined her head to tell Fred to flow her. She stepped on the bus as it pulled up and the doors opened. It expelled air and she stood on her tip-toes to talk to the driver. "I need to get to a building in Stone Street. Do you go near there?" The bus driver frowned at her.

"Aren't you a little young to be wandering about on your own?"

"Nosy parker." Natalie whispered under her breath.

"He's just being a responsible adult." Fred frowned at her.

"When did you get so grown-up sounding?" She directed the question at Fred. The bus driver looked at her oddly. Puzzled. "Sorry. Just talking to myself. I'm meeting someone near there, my dad's girlfriend. She's picking me up. IS this the right way?" None of it was exactly true. But the bus driver shrugged and turned away, his responsibility no longer pressing to him.

He told her that yes, it was the right bus. She paid her fee and went to the back of the bus. It was a short journey. They recognised the building immediately, a few blocks away. Fred held back because Natalie could only walk so fast and he would not ignore his keeping her safe in order to get to Lizzie faster, though it physically pained him not to rush every step of the way.

Eventually they reached the building; Natalie had been quiet for the entire journey, not her usual rambunctious self. Fred was too preoccupied to ask what was wrong. Soon, they were at the building doors and it was no longer the time to ask. They went through the spinning doors at the front of the building.

There was a man at a desk. Fred baulked, In all this time, he hadn't thought about the natural obstacles that might prevent them from getting t their intended destination, instead he had been too preoccupied with thinking what he would do once he got there. Natalie seemed to have a plan though. She marched up to the desk and levelled a gaze at him.

"I'm here to see, Lizzie, in apartment 3." Whatever they had expected from him, resistance, questions, didn't happen. He just pressed a button and buzzed them through. Fred was up the staircase before the man had so much as a chance to look back at his monitor. Natalie ran up behind him. He was through the door in moments and by Lizzie's body. Though he longed to touch her, cradle her head in his lap, he knew he could not touch her.

"Fred. Can you let me in? What's happening?" Fred kept his eyes on Lizzie as much as he could as he unlocked the door. Natalie ran inside. "What's wrong with her? Is she sleeping? She looks like Sleeping Beauty did when she was cursed?" Fred couldn't really say much of anything, only returning to Lizzie's side and trying to think of what he could do. He had been so set on getting to her that he hadn't really thought about what would happen once he got there. Natalie went to the bed and got Lizzie's pillow, tucking it gently under her head and smoothing out her hair.

"Natalie, I am going to try something and you had better step back. If this works then I'll be gone for a while. If I'm not back in thirty minutes, call an ambulance, then your father." He knelt beside her and put his hands on either side of her head. He had been able to do it before. Why should it be any different now? Before it had been easy he had been virtually sucked in, but now it felt as if there was a block. She must be deep inside, or somewhere else. It was hard to explain, the sensation he was getting from her. He pushed against it, concentrating on nothing but getting into her subconscious. He began to feel something. "I think its working." He suddenly felt a force pulling at him inextricably. Then he was tumbling through the blackness again.

**Lizzie **reached the light and found little more than a tunnel. The light was very faint but she could just see the edges of the it. Shrugging, she stepped inside. It wasn't as if she wanted to stay there. It seemed as if the floor was sloping gradually upward and as it did, it grew smaller. By the time she reached the exit she was virtually crawling on her hands ad knees. When she reached it, the light blinded her for a moment. When she finally saw what lay outside, she gasped and then sighed.

She was not in her head anymore.


	8. Chapter 8

_Sorry that this chapter might seem a little on the fragmented side, I'm just getting used to the new world and the split journeys. I know it's been a while. I probably should have mentioned before that this is where the fantasy side of things begins to really kick in. I hope I haven't made what's happening too convoluted. Suffice to say that neither Fred nor Lizzie are in our world, conscious or unconscious any more. Tell me what you think._

She crawled out into the place beyond the tunnel. It was certainly not what she had been expecting. She wasn't truly sure what she had been expecting but it was not what she saw there. It was a green meadow that went on seemingly forever. When she looked behind she saw not a cave as she had expected but a large oversized boot just lying there in the grass. She backed away and as she did the air in front of her shimmered and became a window. It was a small one nestled into the end of the boot. She reached out to touch the glass expecting that her hand would go through but her fingers pressed up against real glass. At least glass that felt real against her finger pads. As she watched the window grew until it was twice the size it had been before. There was something moving behind it. She looked inside and saw an old woman sat at a table at the very centre of a scene right out of a Victorian kitchen. She was surrounded by children and appeared to be reading to them. Curiosity might have drawn Lizzie further into this strange scene but a noise from behind her broke her trance. She backed away hurriedly from it.

"What on earth…" She picked herself up from the ground and moved away from the inexplicable things happening around before her. She scrambled up to her feet and began to run away. She didn't really know where she was running to or what she was running from. She was happy to be out of the darkness but wasn't sure that this place was better. She spared a thought for the body, her body that must still be on the floor in her apartment. She hoped beyond hope that she hadn't died back there, that this wasn't some kind of twisted afterlife. No, she pushed that thought down. For all she knew, this could just be a continuation of what came before. Either way she knew who was responsible and who she had to find to end it and get back to her body. And to Fred, if she could. If this was their realm, then they had to be there somewhere. Unknowingly, perhaps, they had brought her to exactly where she wanted to be. She slowed her pace as her confidence grew. She took the time to look around. The meadow did not go on forever as she had initially though. There were things appearing over the horizon.

She continued walking and after a small incline she saw a shape in the distance. It was brightly coloured and something was giving off smoke. As she drew closer she grew in disbelief. She stopped in front of the giant mushroom and narrowed her eyes at its occupant. The caterpillar was about the size of her upper body with its lower segments trailing off behind it. It somehow held a hookah pipe in its front feet. She pierced it with her gaze and strode up to it.

"You have got to be kidding." The creature, looking indignant as much as a caterpillar can, elongated its body to its full height and levelled its gaze at her.

"Who are you?" Lizzie rolled her eyes. Had she really thought it was going to be simple?

**Fred** blinked up at the room in front of him, wondering when his balance had run off to. He could not see anything and that worried him because he could certainly feel something. The power that existed around him was one that he recognised and justifiably feared and he had caused Lizzie to be brought here, alone and unaware of where she was. He had meant to go into her head as he had done before but he had inexplicably been brought somewhere else. If it was where he thought it was and what it was made from then Lizzie was in danger and he had to find her soon.

"Lizzie." He should be able to sense her but since he had been severed from her, he couldn't' feel her any longer. There was no answer. He hadn't truly expected one but deep in his heart e had been hoping against hope that she was there. He drew up his courage as one might draw up a particularly errant pair of trousers and set off to find her before it was too late to do any good.

"**Who** are you?" The creature repeated staring at her as if she were the strange thing. It peered down at her through owl rimmed glasses that it seemed to have conjured from the very air itself.

"I might very well ask the same of you. Who are you? What is this place? And where can I find the elders or whatever they're called?" The creature drew itself up importantly and blew a ring of smoke at her which dispersed around her head like her own personal cloud. She blew it away, unimpressed. For the first time the caterpillar looked concerned.

"Stupid girl asking dangerous questions. You shouldn't be here. You should run back to where you came from before this place consumes you."

"Consumes? What are you talking about?"

"They have ways of making you disappear little girl. Go back to where they put you for your own safety."

"I couldn't even if I wanted to. The entrance sealed up after I left it."

"Then find another way out before you get trapped here like the rest of us. You are still yourself." As he spoke, something flickered in his eyes and was promptly gone. There was something about his outline in that moment as if it were not so concrete. She thought she saw someone else behind it. But she blinked and the effect did not remain. She clenched her jaw shut.

"I'm not going to run. There would be nowhere for me to go that they could not find me and rip Fred from me. I am going to find them and force them to leave us alone. She strode right past the mushroom the strange character was seated on and into the long grass that stood behind. It rose far above her head, almost as if she were the size of a field mouse among reeds and grass. Perhaps she had shrunk. But no, just as she had been expecting that the grass would never end, as is the way of these things, she came upon a clearing that had a great pillar of stone in the centre surrounded by untamed reeds. As she drew closer, she saw that the white stone of the structure before her was not a pillar but a great tall tower that extended far above her head.

She traced the side, taking it in and found no door. That was when she knew where she was and when a silken strain of hair began to descend in front of her from a point above she saw it for what it was, a distraction as the previous two things had been. That they were throwing these in her path was proof that she was in their realm and could find them. She just had to keep on. She passed by the tower and continued on into the grass, newly imbued with purpose.

**Fred** closed his eyes. He knew that simply looking for the way out would not work; he had to feel for it with his mind. Everything was in the mind there. He cast out his thoughts in search of a chink or a gap in the fabric of belief around him. There. He seized upon the small light growing it until it was large enough to fit through. He kept his eyes shut, going by feel and went toward it. HE came out in a field and knew that he had been right. He could already feel the place pulling at his mind, trying to change it, alter it into something else. He tried to focus his thoughts and to guess which way Lizzie might have gone. Fred was so intent on this that he stumbled straight into a mushroom that went up to his chest. Part of it broke of against his body. He looked up.

"Who are you?"

"More to the point who are you really? And have you seen anyone coming through here?"  
>"You're not supposed to be here."<p>

"I know. Now tell me where I can find the woman who must have passed through here."

"I can't. You shouldn't…"  
>"Yes I know, I shouldn't but I will continue on with or without your help."<br>"Someone did come by. Couldn't tell you who. It's already fading. That is why you must go. Don't you see? You have to see." The eyes screamed at him. For a moment the feet clutching his lapels became hands, the eyes became something like human and he recognised a long dead friend in them.

"Go mouth?" The creature blinked at him.

"Why does that name sound familiar?"

"Because it's yours. If that's you, you have to get out of here." Recognition stirred in those eyes.  
>"Nowhere to go back to. I'm finished remember? The green pills they make it impossible to go back. I felt you coming before but then I couldn't feel you anymore. You must have been redeemed before the last one." The voice was growing fainter, like a sharp wind echoing through far off caves.<br>"Yes."

"Fred?"

"Yes, it's me."

"Don't let go of her. She is the only one who can save you here."

"But I need to save her."  
>"It's… a matter …of….. perception."<p>

"No. Stay here."

"So sorry. I…" He blinked. The creature was back who shook him off accusingly.

"Who are you?" Fred sighed. He pushed back the inescapable sadness.

"I'll find some way to set you free friend, help you." He spoke as he ran into the long grass ahead after Lizzie and his hopefulness.

**The** long grass seemed to go on forever. She had been walking for miles before the landscape changed at all. When it did it came as rather a shock, one moment she was passing through yet another stretch of six foot grass and then suddenly a forest had risen up to meet her. Though it was more likely that she had not noticed it, being deep in the grass, rather than it had actually popped up out of thin air. It was entirely possible in her surroundings. The forest did not at all look inviting. It looked like dark and angry like the ones in the Grimm fairy tales. Given what she had seen already of this place they could indeed be modelled on those very forests. The thought made her stop. If that were truly the case then there would likely be all manner of ark things and terrible monsters inside. She squared her jaw.

If they were throwing the nastier side of childish things at her then she was clearly in the right place. The worse it got, the likelier that she was getting close to their most powerful stronghold. She was not leaving until she confronted them for their appalling behaviour. You did not just go around abducting people's minds and trying to scare them to death. She felt a little dizzy as she stepped closer to the tree line.

Once she had crossed through into the shade of the trees it was as if the sunlight had all but been blotted out/vanished. She parted the trees behind her and saw that it remained daylight on the outside. Regretting her decision almost immediately yet determined to continue onward, she let the branches fall back into place. It was dark and she was scared but she had to maintain her sense of self or she would never get out. She remembered how long the other stretches had gone on for and shuddered. But it could not be as bad as the empty void. At least here there were trees, and she could feel her eyes gradually getting used to the sudden change in light levels.

What was it that people did in these fairytales? Her mother had read her the sanitized versions when she was little in the hopes that they would have some impact on her? They hadn't done much more than give her unrealistic expectations of love, at least love with someone like Charles. Reflecting back, if he mother had read her the real versions, the ones with sex and gore and curses when she was younger she would have liked them a lot better. And Fred might have not made so much fun of them. Though amidst all the jokes he had told her something. Something about the power in stories told to children and the make believe worlds that existed in a child's mind. She closed her eyes against her surroundings and thought. It came to her. There was always a path of some kind, a safe place where the creatures couldn't touch you, as long as you stayed on it. That's what she needed to do; find a path.

**Fred** came out of the tall grass and blundered directly into the stones of a very tall tower. He steadied himself against the stones and tried to make his head stop spinning. As he did this, something tickled the very top of his head. He looked up to see a cloud of dark hair just above him. A voice came down with it.

"You'll have to hurry. She won't be gone long." Fred stepped back and looked up to see a woman far up above him. She gestured and went inside.

"Wait." He braced himself with foot against the stones and grasped the hair with both hands. The climb was uncomfortable and slippery. Twice he had fallen back almost to the bottom because the hair had no real grip. Finally he reached the high window set up into the very stone of the tower, the only way inside.

"Well." The dark haired girl inside said, sounding disappointed. "You're not my Prince." Fred sighed and shook his head.

"No."

**The** boughs of tree after tree brushed past Lizzie as she went blind through them. No amount of time seemed to allow her eyes to adjust. Perhaps there was simply no moon out. She had to keep reminding herself that it was better than the void. She mustn't allow herself to become afraid. She had the feeling that this place would take full advantage of her fear. She had just about managed to calm a fresh rising surge of panic when she was sure she felt long clawed hands under her own. She leapt to the side and felt against others grasping at her dress, ripping it. She bit down on a scream, wrestling her fraying emotions with the last of her reason. She could see noting and had no way of knowing where the next terror would be waiting. It seemed to happen when she moved. She forced herself to stand still and for a long moment, nothing happened. Then a third pair of hands tried to grasp her by the hair. It was too much. She screamed and took off, running headlong into the trees.

She had been running for some time when she realised that she was not yet out of breath. It was not possible. She usually couldn't manage more than ten minutes before she began to at least have trouble breathing in all the way. But she felt no tiredness at all, in fact she felt no different than before. The fear was present for definite but as to physical sensation, she may well have been walking in the park near her apartment. She forced her body to slow down. The fact that she was not out of breath reminded her of one simple fact. None of this was real. Some of it may feel real but when it came down to it, she had far greater measure of control than she realised simply by the fact that she was conscious of this. Much like a lucid dream as long as she maintained the notion that it wasn't real, as long as she believed nothing could hurt her, then she was safe from harm. It was only the moment that she began to doubt herself that things became dangerous for her. Glad that she was beginning to understand the way the world worked, she stopped for a moment to collect her thoughts. She closed her eyes and thought of a path, looked with her mind not her eyes, for they were useless in the potent darkness around her.

Then there was a glimmer, at the corner of her mind's eye. Blindly she headed toward it, eyes still closed against the blackness, taking comfort in the more familiar blackness of closed eyelids. The trees seemed to melt away before her and she felt less of a press of trees. Soon enough there were none at all, none that touché her anyway. She finally allowed herself to open her eyes. Before her lay a path but no ordinary, gravel or earth walkway through the trees was this. Instead, firmly set into the wood floor lay a yellow brick road, that seemed to shift in size and shape as it went on. It went in both directions until it turned a corner. Now faced with a way out, she had to ask herself another question.

"Which way do I go now?" She inquired, mainly of herself. The forest stayed still in answer. Clearly she had to solve this one on her own.

_Thoughts? Too weird? Not weird enough? I'm trying to delve deeper into what happened at the end of the film and what it meant._


	9. Chapter 9

Lizzie took a few moments to gather herself together. She had no way of knowing which way she should go. Perhaps they both led to nowhere. She stood in the centre of the path and looked both ways. It seemed to her that the path leading back seemed to go into an area of lighter trees. While this was the more attractive option it would not serve her well to end up back on the grassy plain. It was likely that her goal lay down the other way forward which seemed to lead deeper into the woods. Though it was darker that way, the path seemed to glow a little, providing just enough illumination as the small amount of light through the trees fell away. She set off down the darker path, knowing full well that all she might find was more forest at the end of it.

"**No. Not a prince. Not even close."** Fred spoke quietly almost to himself. The princess had been combing her endless locks when he had climbed over the threshold. The hand stilled as she appraised him thoughtfully. She looked at him with mistrust and curiosity.

"Why are you here?"

"I suppose true love." It seemed the best way to put it. He approached her quietly. "You haven't seen a dark haired girl…woman passing below your tower."

"And what if I have? YOU are trespassing. If the witch comes back ad finds you here she will kill you." Fred began to pace as she continued to brush.

"Yes, I believe I knew this story. I also know that the witch will blind your prince on the rosebushes unless I can tell you how you can save him. And I won't unless you help me." The princess froze, her hand stilling again with the brush still in her hand.

"But he's always so careful. How can you know this?" She blushed when she realised she had given herself away.

"You first. Which way did Lizzie go?" The Princess folded her arms and pouted.

"She went into the dark forest. But I didn't tell you. They'll be so angry with me if they find out." Fred's shoulders slumped. It had been as he'd feared. It was the most dangerous part of this world. Anything could happen in there. He rushed to the window. As he began to descend her voice floated out after him. "And my prince. His eyes. How do I make them better?"

"You cry. Think of how much you love him and your tears will heal him." Standard ridiculous fairytale logic.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Don't ask me how. It's your story." Though it would be rather less romantic if she knew it ahead of time, that wasn't his concern. She would likely forget he had ever been there. As he climbed down, he had the strangest sensation of not knowing why he was there. For a paralyzing moment there was no Fred, no Lizzie, just a horrible, deep sense of uncertainty. Then, he shook himself out of it. He couldn't let himself lose track of his goal for even a second. This place was dangerous and had the power to change him. It got worse the closer he got to their centre of control. He had to grip onto himself and his love of Lizzie if he expected to survive and stay himself long enough to help her escape. After she was safe he didn't truly care what happened to him. He walked through the long grass with a measured stride. He knew what awaited him on the other side.

As he approached the edge of the treeline, he drew himself in mentally and stepped through the border into the forest.

**Lizzie flicked her eyes** to the side in time to catch a glimpse of something in the trees for perhaps the third time in a minute. Each time, all she caught were glimpses. First a pair of children hand in hand, a gingerbread house, a red cloak, seven dwarves with pickaxes and most recently and frequently, a wolf's tail. Whenever she actually looked for something all she saw was darkness between the trees. She pressed on. She had begun to feel the effects of the place. It was as if someone was tugging at her mind, trying to find a loose thread to unravel it like a jumper. She blocked it out, thinking only of her goal. She continued to walk the path. There had been very little to mark her progress. The path half-broken and the trees, the endless trees. It was quite some time before she saw anything out of the rather limited ordinary of her current situation. Far off in the distance, through the trees, she saw something. It grew no closer as she kept on walking. At times it seemed to dance about, always remaining on the other side of the trees, almost out of sight.

Against her better judgement she felt the urge to leave the path. It grew until she could no longer hold it in. She ripped a piece from the bottom of her nightgown and tied it around the tree she passed as she stepped away from the shelter of the path. She hoped it would mark her place. She did the same every few feet. This time as she approached her quarry it did not dance away but stayed in the same place as she drew nearer and nearer. Every few steps she would look back to make certain that the way she had left was still open.

The thing that she had been pursuing sparkled and gradually came into focus as she continued on. She walked until she came to a small pool of water. It was fed by a thin stream that continued on into the ground. She caught something moving in it that was more than the moonlight that bathed it like a spotlight, illuminating nowhere else. She bent down to take a drink and stopped as the water left her hand. She looked into the pool. The light and shadows dancing on the water formed into a face, her face. Her reflection stared back at her, a darker and simpler reproduction. Then, as she was watching it she saw something else in the features if only for a second. For that moment her features seemed smaller, less formed. When she tried to look for the difference it was nowhere to be found. She drew close almost until her nose touched the water but it did not return. She pulled back and turned yet again to make sure that she could still get back. It was as she rose from her place by the water, she heard somebody speak by her ear.

"Help me." She snapped her head around but saw nothing. It had been a young man's voice. It was a trick, it had to be. The voice drifted on the wind again, urging her to forsake her journey back to the path just a little longer. Now that she looked it seemed that the voice came from the very pool itself. Bracing herself against the rocky side of it, she submerged her face up to her ears, looking for the source. Though the rational part of her brain told her that sound did not travel through water that way, she had to know. There was someone down there.

He was down at the bottom against a submerged stone ivy-covered ruin that had once been part of a castle. The man lay half slumped against a crumbling wall. He was fettered and chained to it. The chains did not allow him to touch the floor above his waist. His torn shirt and mess of brown hair covered any discernible features. The man did not move or breathe but somehow she knew that he was not dead. Feeling a sense of urgency, she pulled her head from the water long enough to take a deep breath before diving into the pool. She needn't have bothered as she found that could breathe very well underneath the water. It confirmed what she had been suspecting for a while, that it would appear that the place seemed to run on dream logic.

She moved to his side and tried to release him from where he was chained. Of course her small fingers could make little of the strong iron, rusted as it was. The stonework, though, was crumbling and the mortar too. She applied the pressure of her two hands against the point at which the ring held his chains and body up, raised a foot and kicked the stone. It fell apart before her eyes and he fell forward onto her. She shook him and his eyes came alive. She indicated that they should go up. There was something wrong with his left arm. It was too big and not shaped like a human arm at all. She found herself pulling him into the rescue position, kicking upward as hard as she could. They broke the surface after a few moments ejecting themselves for the pool and landing on the soil outside. He took a moment to right himself. She saw what was wrong with his arm, it was a not an arm but a wing. A swan's wing.

**He came out of the darkness** by a brick path that disappeared into trees on both sides. Without bothering to guess he started off in one direction, he didn't have time to waste on indecision. He simply would travel one way, hope it was right and ask the first creature he met about Lizzie. As it turned out it was creatures; plural. He had not gone so very far when he heard strange sounds around the bend. As he turned the corner, he came upon a very familiar sight. There was a table in the middle of trees covered in teapots and seated around it were three haphazard figures. An oddly dressed unhinged man in a top hat, a well-dressed but equally deranged hare and oversized seemingly comatose dormouse wearing only a waistcoat. They were placed just off the path to the side in a small clearing. Aware that it was probably pointless to ask them about Lizzie and expecting only gibberish back from them, he cleared his throat and approached them.

"Now here's a dandy fellow. Tell me young sir, are you fond of tea?" The man in the top hat peered over his tea at him.

"Seeing as I can't drink it would be rather pointless if I did."

"Not like tea?" The hare levelled him with his roiling gaze. "Abominable. Move along. Only tea drinkers here."

"I don't mean to stay. Tell me have you seen a young woman pass this way?"

"Young women are in short supply around here."

"You could say that they didn't exist at all."

"Except there was that one. More of a girl really. Blonde hair, pretty blue dress. You know the one. Asks too many questions."

"Alice." The dormouse spoke without moving his head so he remained muffled. Shortly after a loud snore indicated that he had left the conversation once more.

"Quite so. Is Alice the one you seek?" He peered over the rim of his teacup at Fred. Fred sighed and tried one last time.

"No, I'm not looking for an Alice. I'm looking for a Lizzie. My Lizzie. She has dark hair and the most beautiful smile. You'd know it if you saw it. Also, she would have passed by here recently."

"No Lizzies here. Would you like to stay for tea?" Fred's last hope of finding her so easily crumbled. They could be lying but he didn't think so. He would have to go back, having only been wasting his time. He turned back toward the path. Except there was no path. He had left it and it had gone. How has he been so stupid? No, it was just a trick played on his mind. He closed his eyes and fell to his knees, feeling out with his hands. It had to be there somewhere. He kept on but only encountered more grass, more bushes and only the odd tree root sticking out of the ground. No raw earth and certainly no bricks. He opened one eye and despaired. Nothing but tree after tree until they all blended into greenness where his eyes failed him. When he turned to ask the three at the table for help, they too had gone. It was only him, alone in the forest. How could he have let it trick him so easily? You never left the path in stories. He would never find his way back now.

He looked down at himself in despair and started. That was not his body. He was looking down at the body of a boy, no more than fourteen, perhaps less. He stretched out his arms in front of him, disbelieving. Not his and yet he had full control of it. Oh no. The magic of this place was stronger than had realised, and faster. His thoughts were still his own but for how long? He prayed it was not so for Lizzie, otherwise they would never find each other. A thought struck him. No one knew where he was, that he was in here too. Not Lizzie, not Natalie. If he lost himself here, they would think he had abandoned them. They would never know any different. Again he cursed his own foolishness. He was going to be trapped inside a story of his own for all eternity and he would believe wholeheartedly that that was where he was meant to be.

After he had agonised over this for hours and had not felt any different he began to wonder. What if he could find out his story first? What if it couldn't take him unawares? Perhaps then he could hang on to some part of himself. He took in his appearance. Barefoot, clad in green, too young for Robin Hood, uncombed hair and a belt from which hung a dagger in its sheath and an animal skin pouch. He opened the pouch, inside was a collection of random objects, small trophies, a glass eye, a stopped pocket watch, a few gems, two acorns and a silver thimble. Just as he pulled out this last one, slipping it onto his ring finger, a musket blast rang out in the near silent forest, the shot hitting a tree branch just above his head. He had clearly triggered something by the discovery of the thimble.


End file.
